Tuesday 18 June 2019

Out and About

A bit of a catch up post around the patch and beyond from the past month.

First of all the beyond......just over the motorway from Churwell Woods. The giant pine cone tree looks more like Rice Krispie cones at the moment! There are lots of Finches on this little walk - Gold, Bull and Green. I'm pleased to say the Lapwings have nested again in the same spot I discovered last year.


Greenfinch





Back in Churwell Woods and early May saw lots of Tadpoles in the stream and ponds. The little spot in the sunny corner is becoming greener and greener, Iris are flowering all along the stream.






A bit of an unusual thing to be adding at this time of year - Fungi pictures! The amount of rain we've had has created very damp conditions and it's popping up everywhere. I have little brown ones all over the lawn too. 





The birds in the woods have fledged a fair few young - Great, Blue & Long-tailed Tits, House Sparrow, Blackbird, Woodpigeons, Robins, Thrush and my favourite, Blackcaps!

Great Tit





Woodpigeon with youngsters


Long-tailed Tit


Young Thrush



Blackcap


Stock Dove


House Sparrow




Wren



 Robin


Blackbird


Robin


The fledgling Blackcaps, I counted three, there were possibly more but they were in the undergrowth and could have been the adults also. I've managed to see them on a couple of occasions. Really pleasing to see as last year the Blackcap pair seemed to fail to fledge any birds. 




Finally we've had a bit of sun and it brought out lots of bees and ladybirds, it's a little lacking in Butterflies at the moment, i've only seen Speckled Wood and Orange-tip Butterfly recently.

Orange-tip Butterfly


Speckled Wood Butterfily


Green Shield Bugs



Ladybird


Ladybird Larvae 


Lots of these Spiders were on the leaves


Bees
I've tried to ID but please let me know if i've got them wrong!

Red-tailed Bumble Bee


Tree Bumble Bee


Buff-tailed Bumble Bee 


This bush was by one of the entrances to the woods, i've never seen anything like it before. My photos don't do the orange colour justice and the bees loved it, it was covered in them! I did a bit of research and discovered it's a type of Buddleja - Globosa

White-tailed Bumble Bees





All in all looking good around the patch right now, though I need to venture into the parks a little more and see what's about there. Bird wise i've only added Swifts and Red Kite to the list over the past month but it's always quiet at this point in the year. 


13 comments:

  1. What a lovely place.. great photos. We have so many juvenile birds in the garden at the moment, it's wonderful watching them being fed by mum and dad. That orange ball shrub is buddleia globosa, I have 3 in my garden and it's been absolutely covered in bees and the also a few butterflies that are about at the moment.

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    1. Thanks Julie. It is lovely to watch them isn't it! I may try and get one of the Buddleia Globosa bushes for the garden, it's stunning!

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  2. The bees have almost the same orange as the shrub...really pretty! Love all your bird sightings and the butterflies too. Have a great week.

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    1. They do, i'm going to try and get one for the garden. Hope you're having a good week :)

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  3. Hello Pam: The number of species with young is very encouraging and I am sure you were happy to detect all these observations of this year's fecundity. For me the report of the Lapwings re-occupying the same area as last year is the most welcome news of all. Any good tidings about Lapwings is significant indeed.

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    1. It is and there's more young appearing all the time, a productive year so far. I'm very pleased about the Lapwings, they have a safe spot out of the way too so they should do well.

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  4. You have taken some wonderful photos whilst out and about. Lovely to see the young birds have fledged safely. There seems to be lots of young blue tits around here at the moment with frazzled looking parents. Glad the lapwings have returned to nest this year. We've seen loads of bees but very few butterflies this year:)

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    1. Thanks Rosie. We have a lot of Blue Tits here too!

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  5. It's such a lovely spot, anything that has a stream or a pond has my vote, the river Ribble literally ran through our garden where I grew up, I miss being next to the water.
    Good number of birds too, quite hard to spot at this time of the year with the trees in full leaf.
    Have loved reading through your blog, lovely photos.
    Amanda XX

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    1. Yes definitely, it's so nice to have the water! x

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  6. I so enjoyed reading of all your wildlife encounters and seeing the photos :) I loved your description of the Rice Krispie cones :)

    Still not seeing many butterflies here although there are plenty of bees about. Great news about the young Blackcap. I've seen that unusual buddleia flower once or twice - I really would like one for the garden.

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    1. Thank you :) Definitely not as many butterflies here either maybe we were spoiled last year though with it being so hot in June?! I'm going to get one, it was so lovely and the bees clearly love it!

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  7. Looks like a lovely place to walk.

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